Private Key Import and Watch-only Addresses Support
Today we are launching two new features:
watch-only accounts and
private-key import (key sweeping).Watch-only accounts are just as easy to add as standard sub-accounts: just give us the bitcoin address to monitor for credits and debits. The new account shows up along side your other Coinkite accounts, even though we have no access to those funds.
You can even add multiple addresses per account and we will show you the total!
Event notifications work with these accounts, you can
receive an SMS (or email) moments after someone deposits into the watched address. Similarly, you can enable notifications when funds move out from the address, even though that was done outside Coinkite! Maybe you can keep your other bitcoin services honest with this?
Also today, you can bring funds into Coinkite by importing an existing private key. We will search the block chain for the amounts and move them into your Coinkite account so they can be used. It’s great for heating up those cold storage wallets!
We accept private keys in a number of useful formats:- WIF format (Wallet Import Format) — recommended.
- Hexadecimal, Base64 or Base6 (dice rolls) of the secret exponent.
- BIP38 Encrypted private keys. You’ll need to know the passphrase of course.
- At this time, we don’t support EC multiplied BIP38 keys (coming soon) nor DER and BIP44 format keys (support is not planned for those).
The amounts swept up from the private key will go into your chosen account as normal and may be forwarded using our
funds forwarding feature. Deposits that occur after the first sweep will continue to be swept (after first confirmation) so you can continue to use an old public address if you wish.
Watch-only accounts can be upgraded to normal Coinkite accounts, with all our powerful features, simply by giving us the private key. (We detect that the private key corresponds to the watched address already on file and will close the watch-only account if it has only one key associated.)
Bring all your paper wallets into Coinkite today! This is just the start for some exciting new account types here. Stay tuned for more.
We are still in the process of adding these two account features to the
Coinkite API. You’ll soon be able import keys and so on programatically.
PS: We
continue to support Tor to preserve your privacy and these new features work well over
our onion address.
How to Add Watch Only Account:- Click “Create New Account”
- Give it a name
- Select “Watch Only”
- Press “Create Account”
How To Import Private Keys:- Go to Receive Tab > Private Key
- Paste Private Key
- Select account to receive the funds
- Type in Optional Memo
- Press “Save”
